Light of the Lamp

Hello friends,                                           I keep using the word 'mannerism' as to why I am not fond of a particular artiste/musician. But what exactly is the meaning of 'mannerism'? Cambridge dictionary defines the word as  something t hat a   person   does  repeatedly   with   their   face ,   hands , or  voice , and that they may not   realize   they are doing:                                                                    And of course, there are many other definitions to this word. Many of us like to discuss or point out why we do not like a particular cine artiste, because he kills the naturalism of acting with his acquired manneris...

Dear folks,                           December 30 or 31st, 2018                    Before we turn our heads, another new year is already here making us wonder where and how the days and months passed by so quickly!! As one of my friends was talking to me the other day, if the days pass quickly, then your life is interesting. The lucky people are  those who find happiness in what they are doing, without waiting for others' approval. One can say that they have reached the state of eternal bliss or nirvaana while living amongst others. It is tough to reach that state when you always feel pressured to keep doing something with lot of media exposure which seem to be showing that all others around you are achievers!! At the end of the day, the life that one is given is fully theirs....others cannot own it! So, it is your responsibility and choice as to how you want to li...

Hi folks,                       As I write this piece, the whole of Kerala, my homeland, is mourning and coming with the terms of the tragic loss of the violinist and music composer, Balabhaskar. I had not known his existence and it was by accident (pun intended) that I noticed him. It is a pity that this gem of a violinist was not known outside Kerala and by the time we started to notice him, God snatched away from us.                                             From the day he and his family met with the fatal accident which was on the wee hours of September 25th, I kept track of him on whether he will recover from the injuries which led to the multiple organ failure along with head injuries. They had gone on the thanksgiving trip to temples in Thrissur for their 2-year-old daughter whom they had after 16 years of their...

Hi folks,                      I wanted to write few words on the rainbow ruling in India which was delivered by our Honourable Supreme Court last week. But even after one week, I find that I have not crossed more than a sentence due to lot of distractions around me. Though I was born in a conservative family, my views about many things in life have broadened over a period of time. Still, some part of me refuses to leave the conservationism. But there are certain issues on which I wish I could be strongly vocal about and write a lot about them which I am not able to do so out of hesitation and fear.                                                         This is one landmark judgement delivered by Chief Justice Dipak Misra which makes me happy. No, it is not going to affect my life in any way...

Hi all,                                      "Rain rain go away,                                      Come again after a long time,                                     We the people of little Kerala                                      Want to lead our normal lives !!!"                          Onam, the festival of Kerala is round the corner, and this is the first time in my entire life that I find no Keralaite including myself is in a mood to celebrate it. August, the month of Onam was a witness to the largest ever floods in Kerala since 1924...

Hi friends,                      July-August is the Aashadha month or Aadi month or Ramayana month in Hinduism and it is the official start of line of religious festivals upto Diwali. The weather will also be pleasant in most parts of the country before the onset of  North-East monsoons which will precede fall and winter! This year, many parts of Karnataka and all of Kerala were lucky to receive copious rainfall which to some extent helped in resolving the Cauvery issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.                                                               Talking about rains, we went for a monsoon trek last week with a group of enthusiastic runners from a marathon group. We are with this group, especially my husband who is a good runner and into running for a long...

Hi folks,                Forget about writing, even visiting my favourite domain everyday reduced to far and few in between. It being July, this is shamefully my third post for the year. As much as possible, I try to keep updated with the current events around me, but when it comes to putting my thoughts here, it is just not happening.                          Every once in four years (not leap years) is the time when the whole world is gripped with high fever around one ball!!!FIFA fever is reaching its final stages with just the semi-finals and finals remaining. I will miss the liveliness, action, the noise that surrounds the whole stadium filled with fans dressed in the jerseys of their respective teams. Mine is not high fever which means that I stay awake to watch the matches that take place close to midnight (IST). I will miss the time slot from 7:30 to 9:30 PM for some days ...

Hi friends,          If I am back soon after the last post, it is out of passion and eagerness that I am doing so. Hmmmm, not that soon. Again, travel and some other things kept me away from this space. The palpable excitement that I felt on January 31st this year may not be replicated anytime soon, as I considered fortunate enough not only to be alive, but also at the right place to comfortably view the once-in-a-lifetime celestial, astronomical event which was 'super blue blood moon' or as I coined it, the 'BLUNAR ECLIPSE'. Nature had cooked for us an astronomical treat in 'one pot'. The rare ingredients are the totally eclipsed moon, the super moon (moon closest to the earth), the blue moon as it was the 2nd full moon in the month, the pinkish red color which became blood red as the part of the shadow of our earth fell on it. The visual treat was served to us in a platter 'free of charge' to be directly viewed opposite to the complex where we live. ...

Hello folks,                        Happy New Year  and happy Sankranthi, Bhogi, Pongal, Bhigu or whatever to all of you. Hope all my friends had a lovely vacation spending the time whichever way you wanted. Getting back to the routine from the vacation does require an extra push and hope by now all of you are running a rat race seeing the next vacation in the horizon!                                        The year 2017 just whiffed past with the usual mix of memorable and forgettable, pleasant and unpleasant incidents. We are almost through half of January. Though there were innumerable incidents, calamities, political happenings last year, nothing much suddenly strikes my mind except the arrest of V. K Sashikala, the personal and political companion of the late chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Smt. J. Jayalalitha. Her dea...

Hi friends,                  This is my alternate take on the age old, (more than 30 years!) all-timer, musical hit of K. Balachander, SindhuBhairavi. I have watched it many times over not just for the sheer musical versatility which it offered, but for the intellectual discussions on music between Shivakumar(JKB) and Suhasini(Sindhu), the inimitable chemistry between them which I felt every time I watched, the other characters like the mridanga vidwan (Delhi Ganesh), Gajapathi who plays tamburu, the judge, the pure and innocent Bharavi (Sulakshana), Prathap Pothan silently in love with Suhasini who all make the film wholesome, lively and never boring even for a minute. The directorial genius of K. Balachander was visible throughout the film. It is surprising that he was not awarded the best film director at the national level. I have not watched Shri Sivakumar's (Surya's father) films much, and even today I remember him only in the role of...

Dear friends,                      Yep, finally we made to the city of empirical ruins, i.e Hampi. This was in our bucket list for a long time, and each time, when we planned to go, it got 'ruined' due to 'political', 'personal' reasons. But, this time, there were no reasons to stop us except the scorching summer heat and we did not allow it to 'ruin' our plans. Summer is an off-season to visit this place, as the temperatures hover around 40 to 43 degrees during the daytime. Still, it is better to book rooms well in advance, so that you get a decent and comfortable accommodation for good deals.                                                 So, off we headed to the northern part of Karnataka for the first time, and it was different and exciting as we usually travel South from Bangalore to visit places like Myso...

Hi folks,     Don't hit me, don't get me wrong!! I am not asking you to break up with your spouses, lovers or significant others. If some of you have watched the recent ads shown in the TV, then I am sure you would not have missed the one on OLX app, which is a site to find the buyers and sellers near your area. This one with the crisp portrayal of group of youngsters swapping the goods in style and with catchy phrases looked good enough to catch my attention. The two ladies bowing in a Japanese fashion and exchanging the headphones, selling sunglasses in a stylish way, exchanging a leather bag while skating, the smile of a happy buyer of 'bean bag or rocking chair?' are to name a few. More creative OLX ads which were not aired much in TV, can be found in Youtube. It does look sleek and innovative, but we know that when we get down to facts it is actually not so!                              But more...

Hello everybody,                                                                  Feb 13, 2017                                                  Happy spring season or 'Basant Panchami'. Like Arab spring which happened about 4 years ago, the spring movement is going on in Tamil Nadu. For the past one year, Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai, has been one of the most happening places 'nature-lly' and politically. Nature has not been very kind to the people of Tamil Nadu, especially Chennai-ites, in the last 2 Decembers. The incessant rains during December 2015 drowned Chennai and it was brought back to its feet by the goodwill of the ordinary citizens who rose up to become extraordinary to save Chennai. ...

Hello everybody,                           Did not think myself I will be back this soon. Wish you all a very happy and a prosperous new year. And why this strange title 'Happy New Year with Parker pen'? Did I go to a gift store to buy a set of greeting cards and then write in them the new year messages personally? Sounds so outdated right? In this era of FB, whatsapp, twitter, Snapchat when we still don't have the patience of sending the New Year 'GIF' photos or slides to thousands of 'friends' across the globe, who still goes and buys those set of attractive New Year greeting cards? But if you have grown up during 80s and 90s, I am sure many of us would have done that. I remember that I used to wait for each New Year to arrive to feel the fresh smell and the beauty of the new cards. Actually, we were spoilt for choices when it was about buying cards. Later on, my sister used to make greeting cards painstakingly, and I ...